More than 330,000 people in the United States are estimated to have died during the past decade because of delayed or inadequate access to health care, a new study estimates.
The results, from researchers at Harvard and Boston University, show how lack of health insurance coverage and lapses in insurance status are contributing to a dire situation that will make the U.S. health care system even worse in the coming years, according to the report published online in the American Journal of Public Health.
The report says that a decade after the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 31.3 million people lacked health insurance, about the same as before the law was passed.
The study says that one of the main issues in the debate over the health care law was whether people covered by the law had health insurance, said one of the study’s authors, Sarah Diefendorf, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act made coverage compulsory for individuals making more than 133 percent of the federal poverty level and covered some, but not all, people in the country, as well as some young people who were not insured, she said.
The health care law also provided funds for Medicaid, a federal health program for low-income individuals, as well as subsidies for purchasing private insurance through state-based exchanges.
While the law provided a substantial down payment for some uninsured people and a new market for insurance, Diefendorf said, there is much work that still needs to be done.
She asserted that there is no dispute that the current healthcare system is faulty. "The system ought to provide coverage for everyone,"
In order to fix the system, the authors of the study say that universal coverage is the answer, saying that covering the population with insurance will save more than 340,000 lives over the next decade.
To arrive at the estimate, the researchers used the 2010 census and their own database of death certificates and Social Security records. The research was funded by a grant from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and was carried out by the Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston University School of Public Health, and Harvard Kennedy School.
The estimated mortality of these individuals would have been 8,283 per year, the study said, assuming a mortality rate of 14.2 deaths per 100,000 people in the United States.
They also estimated how much could have been saved if in-network access to care was expanded to everyone and insurance claims processing and billing were streamlined.
The researchers estimate that universal health coverage would save an additional 360,000 lives, or 2,810 per year, with in-network claims processing and billing improving billing and accounting of reimbursements to reduce uncompensated care and to promote reform.
Along with the potential to save lives, universal coverage would have the additional benefit of creating more economic value for the health care system by creating more insured customers and lower administrative costs, the study said.
Diefendorf stated, "This is about utilising our health care funds wisely.
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